GDC 2018: How to get exploiters to happily surrender in EVE Online

Play EVE Online for free EVE Online is not known for being a happy place. It’s shown even in mass media as a cutthroat world of war and theft. Dealing with exploits is key to making sure that this world ripe for unfairness is, well, as fair as possible, mechanically speaking. If abuse happens, traditional developer wisdom seems to be “shoot first, ask questions later,” and as players, we’re often fine with this. We don’t want to play with cheaters, right? But what happens if the cheating is unintentional? What happens when the bug is so ingrained into the system that even casual, lapsed players accidentally took advantage of it just by returning to the game? How would you react if, shortly after resubscribing to a game, you had items or experience points taken and had your account suspended or banned? These are the things CCP Games’ Senior Project Lead of Player Experience David Einarsson had to deal with when tackling the ghost training bug. How the bug came to be While Einarsson spent a good chunk of his time during his GDC talk trying to explain EVE to those unfamiliar with the title, I’m hoping I can skip most of that for sitegoers. Essentially, the bug started when the game moved to a free to play model. The labor system (offline skilling) changed depending on whether or not the player was a free-to-play person or a subscriber. The system checked your status when you logged out, and checked it again when you logged… [Read full story]